It's a tough one in respect to the players bought in though, Nick. I don't think with the money available he could have done much more - perhaps with the exception of Sordell, but we don't know what money was put forward by us for him.
I think if CP got a bit tougher, maybe use some budget to bring in another coach, with a couple of squad additions who could make an instant impact then we would climb the league. If he's allowed to do that, that is.
That's poor Vol, how many of these 95% of managers would've had these players as first choices..? Do you really think CP didn't have better targets, but for reasons Slater touched upon recently, they weren't possible... Seems highly likely that's the case, if we take on board what he recently said that "There is no denying the correlation between a club's budget and finishing position in the league"... Surely if we apply that logic, it's no surprise we've ended up with these type of palookas, is it..? So is it all CP's fault..? ITTV... Isn't that the place where hypocrisy, double standards, and personal attacks are the norm... Really the "best forum"..? There's no such thing in my book, and I've been on all them since the begining, and one thing that's never changed on any of them, is that hypocrisy, and the fact that people seem to have a problem answering direct questions, or taking on facts that don't fit in with their personal agendas...
Damien Matthew was a very good coach for the U-18's, a bit of a purist in the style of play he introduced, so either he's telling the seniors something different or else they aren't listening. I even wonder the coaching team are really singing from the same song-sheet. CP's successes are mostly with defenders, Alnwick and Wood were good signings, he brought in Solly and Cousins from the Academy and they have improved under his guidance. You can't say the same for Harriott and Pigott, in fact the reverse is true in Pigott's case. And our rigid adherence to a set formation means that players are rarely caught out of position defensively, but going forward the choice is often between passing backwards or going long. Maybe that's one reason all our games are close, the other being that when we get into the lead we drop deep inviting the other team to attack. So for me the performance reflects the manager rather than the coach.
Just read a report of the under-18's game at Sparrow's lane on Saturday. This game was due to be played at Brighton, but was changed late last week. Pity the club didn't bother to put it on the OS, but I don't really expect anything different any more.
